Conventionally, a device having a function of erasing an image such as a character, a picture, and a photograph printed on a recording medium such as a sheet is proposed. For example, an image forming device obtained by adding an erasing function of erasing an image printed on a sheet to an image forming device having an image forming function of printing an image on a recording medium such as a sheet is proposed. In addition, an image erasing apparatus having only the erasing function is provided. Hereinafter, the image forming device and the image erasing apparatus are collectively called an image erasing apparatus. The image erasing apparatus includes a scanner unit, a storage unit, and an erasing unit. The scanner unit scans a sheet, and converts a result of the scanning into electronic data, before erasing the image on the sheet. The storage unit stores the electronic data of the result of the scanning. The erasing unit performs an erasing process on the sheet based on the result of the scanning. For example, the image erasing apparatus determines whether there is an image to be erased on the sheet based on the result of the scanning. In addition, the image erasing apparatus determines whether the sheet itself is a reusable sheet with no wrinkling or the like based on the result of the scanning. When there is the image to be erased on the sheet and the sheet itself is reusable, the erasing unit performs the erasing process on the sheet.
In addition, the scanner unit scans the sheet after the erasing process is performed by the erasing unit. The image erasing apparatus automatically determines whether the image on the sheet is erased based on the result of the scanning. The image erasing apparatus has a reject tray and a reuse tray as a discharge tray. When it is determined that the image on the sheet is erased and the sheet is reusable, the image erasing apparatus discharges the erasing-processed sheet to the reuse tray. When it is determined that the image on the sheet is not erased, the image erasing apparatus discharges the erasing-processed sheet to the reject tray. Meanwhile, in an erasing process target sheet, printing information may be only on one face (printing may be performed on one face). When the one-side printed image is not erased, the image erasing apparatus may discharge the one-side printed sheet to the reject tray, with the other face on which the image has not been originally printed being upward. When the sheet is discharged to the reject tray with the face on which the image has not been originally printed being upward, a user may mistake the reject tray as the reuse tray.